Rumours about the pre-production of Star Wars, the live action series, to be shot in Australia, have been confirmed by several inside sources.

The quality and style of writing that will be used will be of the highest quality, and local, and writers will be sourced from outside traditional Science Fiction shows. Several big names within the Australian industry (including writers from the Award-winning Love My Way and the Award-winning Secret Life of Us) have been approached by Star Wars uber-producer, Rick McCallum.

Love My Way and Secret Life of Us can be characterised by the focus on relationships and emotional landscapes (traditional ‘chick shows’, if you will). Bringing this element into the world of Star Wars sees a marked departure of the final three films and animated Clone Wars, where the primary audience was children.

This throws the new series into a whole new spotlight, and should excite fans of the Star Wars universe looking towards more adult fare.

More solidification of rumour into fact will come as soon as possible.

LIVE-ACTION SERIES CASTING BEGINS Rose Byrne promoting the thriller movie Knowing revealed Lucas is casting for the Live-Action Series. Rose Bynre will not be auditioning herself. Entertainment Weekly confirmed with a Lucasfilm Representative that casting agents are in Australia.

Joel then went on to show how the art style of Clone Wars influences details and subtle as even the snow or the water. Passing through some videos, he describes the process of creating the flamethrowers that will be used in season two. Revealing the process he used, he actually created models for each frame of the flame itself, then sped the animation up quickly – and this process gives the fire a definite ‘Clone Wars’ effect, making it stylish and artistic to match the show. “It’s been a great learning experience,” he goes on to say, “Since I came over to animation from ILM (Industral Light and Magic) I was trying to break myself away from the photo-realistic style I have always gone for.” By opting for a stylistic choice and approach, the production team achieves an economical solution far less taxing that expensive computer physics simulation ordinarily employed for such effects.

Star Wars Live Action series

Originally Posted by Doze

The surprise for us, though, was that we found it (Mos Espa) bustling with activity. A number of labourers were renovating, repainting and building new buildings. Ironically, the effort to build these alien structures was done in a very human way; one man applied plaster with his bare hands, others sat and smoked in the shade of an alien hall.
One worker who spoke English, Farouk Ben Ibrahim, came forward to explain. Renovations began back in December, he said, after an Italian film producer contracted locals. “He gives us money, and we fix it,” Ibrahim said. “He said there is another part of Star Wars filming here. In the summer, maybe.”

Interesting, I will try to get a verification on that. My father has a friend who’s in charge of tourist excursions into Sahara and the other regions of south-Tunis, including the Mos Espa set, I’ll ask him about any of this.

“Rumours about the pre-production of Star Wars, the live action series, to be shot in Australia, have been confirmed by several inside sources.
The quality and style of writing that will be used will be of the highest quality, and local, and writers will be sourced from outside traditional Science Fiction shows. Several big names within the Australian industry (including writers from the Award-winning Love My Way and the Award-winning Secret Life of Us) have been approached by Star Wars uber-producer, Rick McCallum.
Love My Way and Secret Life of Us can be characterised by the focus on relationships and emotional landscapes (traditional ‘chick shows’, if you will). Bringing this element into the world of Star Wars sees a marked departure of the final three films and animated Clone Wars, where the primary audience was children.
This throws the new series into a whole new spotlight, and should excite fans of the Star Wars universe looking towards more adult fare.
More solidification of rumour into fact will come as soon as possible.”
I hope that Comic-Con will finally start to reveal a little information about this new series.

Our Australian sister site SCI FI TV reports a rumor that preproduction is gearing up for George Lucas’ proposed live-action Star Wars series, which is to be shot Down Under.

The site, citing anonymous sources, adds that the show is assembling high-quality writers from the Aussie TV industry, including writers from Love My Way and Secret Life of Us, who have been approached by Lucas’ longtime producer Rick McCallum.

The as-yet-untitled series is supposedly set to debut in 2010, though there has been no word of a distributor yet. The series will reportedly be set between the eras of Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope and will not feature any major characters from the film series.

Is George Lucas finally moving ahead with that promised live-action Star Wars TV show? Sources say yes. Sources also say the show will be produced in Australia by a hand-picked crew of Aussie TV vets. And we might even get to see it before the end of 2010. But I got a question: Do we really want a live-action Star Wars TV show?

Well, yeah, of course we do. For most of us, the original Star Wars trilogy was a thrilling entry point into the bizarre and inspiring world of science fiction. For an ’80s kid like me, Star Wars was nothing less than a dazzling blast of awesome that I couldn’t get out of my head. There was nothing cooler. (I wore the sh*t outta my Yoda jammies.) I’d love to see a Star Wars TV show deliver the same unpolished pluck, heart and spirit of the original trilogy, but we all know that’s not gonna happen.

You’ve seen the prequels. You’ve seen The Clone Wars. It’s likely the new series will be heavy on cartoony CG effects and kid-friendly concepts and light on the simple but engaging storytelling we fell in love with decades ago. Word is the series will focus on “relationships and emotional landscapes.” Normally, I’d say that’s a good thing. What’s a TV show without engaging relationships and characters motivated by emotion? But we’ve already seen the new Star Wars‘ version of relationship drama, and it is very, very bad. Remember that “Sand sucks. It is so rough and sand-like, but you are so soft” nonsense between Anakin and Padme from Episode II? It only got worse from there.
I know it’s almost become a national sport to bash Lucas about his much-loathed Star Wars prequels, but come on, he screwed that sh*t up pretty good! Does anyone out there actually think this show will be any better than the soulless dreck we sat through in the prequels, even if Lucas isn’t calling all the shots? Get ready for weekly drama with Baby Boba Fett and laughs with the wacky CG gang at Dex’s greasy spoon. I have a bad feeling about this.

Twelve Years in the Making?

Our mole aka "Woort" reveals the true story of how LucasFilms has been planning the Star Wars Live Action Series since they began to clean up the Original Trilogy with digital tweaks. Woort tells us how, bit by bit, the development of the New Trilogy was also getting things ready for the Television Show. Read all about it here!

Sex In Sci Fi

Who is the sexiest chick in Sci Fi? Who is screwing the damsel in distress? From the incestuous three way of Empire Strikes Back to the slash fiction world of Spock and Kirk, explore the kinky side of superhero sex!